What we do

TAKE THE COLLABORATION CHALLENGE!

Give your organisation the best chance of successfully meeting its key challenges, by tapping into the insights of your crowd - employees, suppliers, customers or partners.

Whether you are facing operational challenges, needing to find new ways to cut costs and boost efficiency, wanting to re-invigorate your innovation pipeline or develop a new strategic plan for the future, our jam process gives your people the chance to put their best ideas forward.

WHAT IS A "JAM"?

A jam is an idea-generation and decision-making tool which streamlines your organisation's collaboration processes. As an online, time-limited collaboration event, usually two weeks in duration, our jams are exclusive to your invited group of participants, which can range in size from 50 to 5000 individuals. Using a secure software platform, our jam service allows you to access the ideas and opinions of the people who matter most to your business, one organisational challenge at a time.

HOW IT WORKS

Our services start with helping you specify the challenge you need to address, and identifying the people you’d like to participate. We then allocate you a dedicated, secure space on our purpose-designed web platform for the duration of your jam event. There’s no training or software installation required – all participants require is a web browser or smartphone.

In this neutral online space, all personality types can voice their opinion with equal impact, through three distinct mechanisms:postingnew ideas,commentingon the ideas of others, or simplyvotingto give an idea an objective 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down'.

During the jam event, participants can log on to post, comment and vote at any time convenient to them. Our support team monitors posts to ensure relevance of content, and is available by email and phone to assist with any queries.

Our process provides all the relevant tools and services needed to make your jam a success. We help to define your challenge and identify the most suitable participants. We also develop a customised communications plan to optimise engagement within your jam group.

When your jam is complete, you receive a detailed report, including statistics on posting, voting and commenting patterns, and an analysis of the most popular, active and controversial ideas. We can also help you to get the most out of your jam findings, through post-jam workshops or detailed results analysis.

JAMS VS. TRADITIONAL DECISION-MAKING

Jams are effective in four key ways:

They arefocusedaround specific themes, as defined by management - hence they are not simply open-ended solicitations, suggestion boxes or community discussions;

They arespecificto the group invited to participate, which can include external stakeholders such as customers or suppliers, as well as employees – but not the general public;

They arescalablebeyond the limits of physical get-togethers, able to accommodate thousands of participants, regardless of their location; and

They aretime-limited, so they do not simply fade into the background of everyday business life.

Jams complement conventional stakeholder surveys that, while useful, focus on the past and present, not the future. The jam difference is in providing a platform for forward-looking, action-oriented collaboration.

TAPPING IN TO THE "LONG-TAIL" OF COLLABORATION

Another key benefit of the jam approach is that it lets you hear directly from the people you wouldn’t usually engage with. As shown below, contributions to a collaboration event typically follow a 'long-tail' or power law distribution, with a small number of participants responsible for a relatively large proportion of content generated, and the remainder of participants making up a long tail of relatively smaller contributions.

What's interesting is that the most popular ideas generated by a jam event do not necessarily come from those who have the most to say. Above, the stars denote the popularity of ideas against their source, with for example the second most popular idea being generated by the 31st most prolific contributor. This indicates that the jam process provides a neutral platform for all stakeholders to put their ideas forward - including those in the long tail, who may have a smaller number of ideas that nonetheless resonate strongly with the group.

By giving voice to all stakeholders on an equal basis, jams allow you to tap into knowledge from a diverse group that can include employees, partners, customers or other stakeholders. This content provides a valuable source of insight that is not otherwise easily accessible.

Check out ourcase studiesto find out how some of our customers have created value with the Vulture Street jam approach, orcontact usfor further information.